For Better Business, Prostitutes Leave Manhattan for Jersey City

By EVELYN NIEVES

Published: September 22, 1992

Along corners of Manhattan where prostitutes have long gathered, flagging down cars and following passers-by, prospective customers now cruise around and around, discovering the obvious: many women have left.

Not coincidentally, across the Hudson River in Jersey City, it's possible to find scenes reminiscent of Times Square 10 years ago: women in tight mini-skirts and high heels standing conspicuously outside motels, waving at passing cars.

The women have come from New York, officials on both sides of the river say. Some have moved to avoid midtown Manhattan police crackdowns. But just as many seem to be escaping the ravages of New York's crack epidemic and the cut-rate prostitution with which addicts support their habits.

"You could say the crack addicts ruined everything," said a prostitute standing in front of a Jersey City motel. She said she worked the streets of midtown Manhattan for seven years before moving to Jersey City about 18 months ago. "Here," she said, "it's more professional." A Migration of Problems

The migration has had repercussions on both sides of the Hudson. In Jersey City, the police are tackling a thriving trade they barely knew a year ago involving traditional prostitutes who consider themselves professionals and turn over a share of their earnings to their pimps.

In New York, while there may be less street prostitution, what remains is even more squalid and risky than before -- as the desperation of crack addicts intersects with the threat of AIDS in sexual transactions that cost as little as $1.

For prostitutes who have left New York for Jersey City, where the price for sex is $20 and up, the choice was a calculated business move, the police say.

Most men who seek prostitutes are suburban commuters, according to Lieut. John Gilchrist of the Manhattan South precinct, which covers the borough from 59th Street south. He said that in most sweeps for customers of prostitutes, the catch was 70 percent suburban commuters and the rest a mix of out-of-town visitors and city residents.

In a midtown Manhattan sweep in August, for example, Lieutenant Gilchrist said, the police arrested 10 men: five from New Jersey, one from Babylon, L.I., one from Philadelphia, one from Suffern and two from Brooklyn. Convenience and Anonymity

Jersey City lies at the end of the Holland Tunnel and is crossed by several major roads, making it as convenient to slip in and out of as New York. And on the grimy, industrial stretch of Routes 1 and 9 where the women operate, tractor trailers are more common than pedestrians; prostitutes and their clients have the same anonymity they had in areas of New York where prostitution has long been part of the streetscape.

When Manhattan South officers started making fewer arrests despite frequent crackdowns -- the total was 1,497 arrests in the first seven months of this year, compared to 2,764 in the same period last year, Lieutenant Gilchrist said -- they found that some prostitutes had started going to Jersey City to meet quotas from their pimps.

"After they worked in Manhattan, they'd go over to Jersey for a few hours," he said. "Some of them said they lived there, so they would work a few hours on their way home. I guess some stayed."

Capt. James Schamberg of the Jersey City Police North District, the area where prostitution has mushroomed, said officers have long known that women they recognize as prostitutes were commuting in taxis from Jersey City to work in Manhattan.

But in the last year, he said, his department has arrested more than 300 women on prostitution charges, more than ever before, and some had records from several states and countries.

In recent weeks, Captain Schamberg said, the department has mounted a full-scale crackdown on prostitution, advising hotels to complain about loitering, using undercover officers to arrest patrons and impound cars, keeping the women who are arrested in jail. He believes the crackdowns have prompted some of the women to head back to New York. 'They Always Come Back'

But, on the other side of the river, Lieutenant Gilchrist said it was not always so easy to persuade prostitutes to change the places they do business.

"They always come back after crackdowns," he said, adding, "The pimps are out there with mobile phones and they let the women know when the coast was clear."

The North District street scene in Jersey City has become rowdy. On weekends, the situation has become volatile for both the prostitutes and those clients who emerge from nearby bars, with a number of fights reported.

The district has had at least one instance in which a man was stabbed by a prostitute, and there have been several robbery complaints, the police say.

"We've had women flagging down trucks in the middle of the street," Captain Schamberg said. "We've also had instances where men looking for prostitutes have approached women in residential neighborhoods."

Officer Martin Roszkowski of the North District, who has arrested some women so often they call him "Marty," and his partner, John Romaniello, say they are not sure how many of the women use drugs.